The Latchkey's Passage
by Willow-Bee the Cat
Summary: Dawn makes a different wish to Halfrek. Left to figure out how to control her powers as the Key before she destroyed herself or the multiverse, Dawn sets out on a journey of self discovery, picking up unexpected strays along the way.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I neither own nor make a profit from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or DC Comics.

Spoilers: Everything for Buffy, everything for DC.

Timeline: Begins mid Season Six for Buffy. DC comes in about a "year" before the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Of course, "comic book time" is highly subjective, so it's a bit difficult to say when precisely this begins.

Characters: Dawn Summers, Jason Todd and Jason Todd (yes, you read that correctly)

Pairings: No pairings at the moment, but that might change later on.

Summary: Dawn makes a different wish to Halfrek with unforeseen consequences. Left to figure out how to control her powers as the Key before she destroyed herself or the multiverse, Dawn sets out on a journey of self discovery, picking up unexpected strays along the way.

Author's Note: This is an attempt to give Dawn back her powers as the Key in a reasonable manner. I'll admit, it got away from me, as most stories do, and it seems likely it will become something of an epic, so I've cut it down a bit. This particular story will only cover from the episode "Older and Far Away," until the beginning of Season Seven, which takes place about eight or nine months before the Crisis.

I found fragments of this story of pieces of paper in an old notebook. Much of the prologue and the first chapter come from these writings which is why they're so choppy.

* * *

Prologue

* * *

"_They need you in the guidance office."_

Wondering what could be wrong, Dawn quickly gathered her books and bag. Did they know? She knew she hadn't been caught before, but luck ran out for everyone. Eventually.

What felt like both an eternity and a split second later, Dawn found herself sitting in the guidance office. Across from her was a pretty brunette guidance counselor with a small blue pendant draped prominently about her neck.

"_I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you_," said the woman. _"Just a follow-up after your… your loss. And since I'm new here, I thought it would give us a chance to know each other."_

"_Great,"_ muttered Dawn, feeling slightly relieved.

"_So, I've been looking through your file and um… your grades have_ _slipped a little."_

"_I have really hard classes this quarter."_

"_Yeah, still. Teachers say you seem a little distracted lately."_

"_I'm not," _protested Dawn. "_I-I'm fine."_

"_Okay. It's just, you know, I know it must seem weird_," the guidance counselor laughed, "_talking to a stranger about stuff, but, um… I want you to know that if something's going on, something's up, my job… the most important part of my job… is looking out for you_."

"_I'm really okay."_

"_I know there's been… a lot of loss."_

Dawn looked away. "_Yeah. Kinda_." She looked up. "_I-I mean, yes. People keep… people…"_ (1) she trailed off, reconsidering what she'd been about to say. "Sometimes I think people only care about me because of who I'm related to or… what I used to be." She bit her lip, considering her words carefully. "And sometimes… I wish there were people who cared about me for me and-" Dawn paused, deciding she'd already said too much.

"And?" asked the woman. When Dawn looked down, she said, "You can tell me."

"That I… That I felt like me again, instead of like I'm stuck inside a stranger's body."

* * *

Dawn Summers had certainly made a difficult wish. Oh, it didn't look that way from the onset, but when one looked at all the inherent problems… it was a doozy of a request.

In the end, Halfrek decided to begin with the second part of the wish. It was quite obvious why Dawn felt like a stranger in her own body. Beyond the immediately apparent teenage reasons. Dawn's powers were bound. Halfrek was more amazed that so much power had been successfully bound than anything else. The binding must had required a sacrifice-blood at the very least… maybe even a human life as well.

Halfrek was exceedingly careful in unbinding the magic preventing Dawn from being able to access her powers. She'd considered making the consequences of Dawn's wish… unpleasant her, but the girl's power was a curse in and of itself.

That would satisfy D'Hofryn.

It was only upon closer examination that Halfrek came to the conclusion that once her powers were unbound, they could be used to lead Dawn to the first part of her wish-with a few… gentle nudges. Not to mention that unbinding Dawn's powers would be a good little dig at Dawn's sister and so-called friends. That would do nicely as a bit of vengeance. Even if it was a bit more subtle than most of her work.

* * *

(1) Preceding dialogue taken from the episode "Older and Far Away."


	2. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: I was going to wait a couple days until I put this chapter up, but then I decided it was better to put it up now. Anyway, Chapter 2 should be up in a week or two.

* * *

Chapter 1

* * *

It started simply enough. Walking down a school hallway between math and art class, Dawn bumped into a pretty blonde with mean pink streaks in her hair. The blonde helped to steady Dawn, a wide eyed look upon her face.

"Your light is on," announced the girl, pitching her voice so that only Dawn would hear.

"Huh?" she said, wondering if this was a joke or another brand of Sunnydale craziness.

"Your light," said the blonde, as if Dawn were the crazy one. "So pure and good," was muttered, before she straightened up and explained, "It was off for a while-since last May, but it's on again. I thought you should know."

Dawn felt the blood drain from her face. No. It couldn't be. She wasn't the Key anymore. She was normal. She was human.

The blonde turned to leave, then paused and looked back. "He would have protected you from her, if he'd known. I think."

"What are you talking about?" asked Dawn, looking away at the sound of a book falling to the ground. By the time she looked back, the blonde was gone.

* * *

The conversation with the blonde from school had been all but forgotten. She still thought about it on rare occasion, but had come to the conclusion that the girl was probably just crazy or some sort of psychic that had seen her back when she was still the Key and had merely been mistaken. At least, she tried to make herself believe that. Of course, there was still a little voice in the back of her head that whispered that perhaps the Key had merely been drained of energy thanks to Glory's attempt to use her as a human sacrifice. That maybe the Key's power had recharged or something similar. That perhaps she'd never stopped being the Key. And maybe, just maybe her blood could still be used to open dimensional portals or whatever it was the Key did.

Dawn hissed in pain. She'd been sharpening a small knife stolen from Buffy years prior when her hand slipped. It was so small a cut, not more than a centimeter in length, but it was deep enough that Dawn considered whether or not it was worth it to get sutures from the massive first aid kit in the bathroom and stitch it shut.

She put down the knife and whet stone. Holding her hand at the same level as her head, she fished around in her bedside table drawer, searching for the small first aid kit she kept there. Once found, Dawn put it next to the knife.

Dabbing at the wound with a cotton ball soaked in peroxide, a drop of blood fell from her hand. Dawn ignored it in favor of cleaning the wound. Once clean she put a bit of homemade salve wound-she'd gotten the recipe from Tara, it worked better than Neosporin-and then a piece of gauze. Gauze in place, she tapped it down.

As she put the first aid supplies away she noticed something was wrong. Dawn felt faint.

The drop of blood hung in the air, glowing white. The moment Dawn took notice of the blood, the light began to expand in a somewhat circular manner.

This couldn't be happening. It had to stop! Stop!

The expansion halted as a purple and white mist began to form. Bolts of almost green light flowed from edge to edge.

It was happening. She couldn't deny it.

Would the portal start growing again? It began to expand the moment the thought crossed her mind.

Please let it stop. Please, please, let it stop.

It did. The portal, now the size of a grapefruit hovered before her.

Her eyes widened in realization. Was it controlled by her thoughts?

Unable to think of anything else to do, Dawn willed the portal to close. Willed it to disappear.

Dawn fought the urge to throw up as the portal shrank until it ceased to be.

This couldn't be happening. But it was. It was real. She was still the Key.

It was then that Dawn thought back to her conversation with the blonde. Obviously she wasn't a necromanced animal. So she had to be out of touch with reality in some way. Was she crazy? A seer?

Oh God. She was still the Key. Still a magical object turned human.

* * *

The nightmares began shortly thereafter. Fragments of half remembered terror and horror. Fragments that turned into dreams of what had been. Dreams that became memories of events long past.

By the end of the month, Dawn was completely exhausted. Not that anybody other than Tara seemed to notice. Tara had merely suggested that she go to bed earlier. And what was she to say in reply? That she was lucky to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time?

She'd taken to napping during the afternoon-between her return from school ad when either Buffy returned from work or she was expected at the Magic Box to be "babysat" by the Scoobies. The memories tended to be less graphic when the sun was out.

The dreams she had while the sun was out were faraway, like something that was happening to somebody else. She knew differently, but it permitted her to gain some much needed distance from these memories.

* * *

Dawn glanced up as a tray was placed on the table she had shared with Janice. Her friend had left to go to the bathroom and would be gone for at least fifteen minutes fixing her makeup. It took Dawn's sleep deprived mind several seconds to realize it was the blonde girl who may or may not be a seer. Or perhaps in need of a good psychiatrist.

"Hullo," said Dawn.

"Hi," smiled the blonde. "I just wanted to give you a gift for your birthday."

"Huh? It's not until the end of June," she protested.

"I know. But I won't see you on your birthday, so I thought I should give it to you now."

"Oh, thanks."

"Here," said the girl, sliding a large brightly wrapped package over to Dawn. "I've found it helps when dealing with things you can't talk about to others."

"What helps?"

"Writing, of course."

"I-of course," said Dawn, humoring the girl. She hadn't written anything other than class assignments since the day she'd burned a good portion of her diaries. If she was crazy, there was no reason to upset her, and if she was indeed a seer, Dawn had a feeling she might be following that advice sometime soon.

The blonde stood and turned to leave. "I'm Cassie, by the way. Cassie Newton."

"Dawn Summers."

"I know."

Cassie picked up her tray and walked to another table seconds before Janice sat back down at the table.

"What was that all about?" asked Janice.

* * *

Dawn did not open the heavy brightly wrapped package until well after school ended that day. Under the wrapping paper was a cardboard box. In the box were numerous books covered by a sheet of printer paper. She picked up the paper, reading the message:

_Dawn,_

_I do hope you enjoy these works, or at least receive a bit of inspiration. The one thing these works have in common is that though supposedly works of fiction, they all have grains of truth hidden within them._

_Cassie_

Wondering exactly what Cassie was getting at, Dawn carefully removed the books from the box. There was a trade paperback containing the first fifteen issues of General Glory from the 1940s. An anthology of short stories titled "The Chronicles of Life." There were thirteen novels by Dian Belmont, with the name Cassandra Newton scrawled inside with a child's hand. Dawn later learned that Dian Belmont had only written seventeen novels. There was a book entitled "Lies My Brother Told Me," and a book of poetry by Doris Lee called "Golden Stars, Red Moon" which had been published posthumously in 1946 by some man named Theodore Knight. From what she read of the foreword, Ms. Lee had been murdered and her man, Mr. Knight had published her poetry in honor of her. Finally there were several cloth covered books with no title or author numbered with black permanent marker.

Dawn opened the book marked "I" and a slip of paper fell out. She picked it up and turned it over. There was writing she recognized as Cassie's on the back:

_I wrote most of these poems years ago. You may do with them as you please. I only ask that you not use my full name._

She had no idea what the note meant. Did Cassie think she was going to have them published or some such?

* * *

Over the next two months Dawn read all of the books. Not only to keep herself awake at night-to avoid the nightmares for as long as possible-but also because she found them fascinating.

She read Cassie's poems last, not sure she wanted to see what the blonde had written. The poems were… indescribable. They confirmed, for Dawn, that Cassie was a seer. The helpless feeling… the hopelessness, the horror of knowing what will be but the inability to change what was going to happen.

These poems were good-amazing really. They followed their own style rather than one of the more traditional ones. Halfway through the book marked "IV" was forty pages made up of a single poem which seemed to be more an epic than anything else. It was the story of a seer who attempted, unsuccessfully, to stop several children from being murdered by a demon.

There were a couple other short stories, though none as long. Two of them dealt with death. More specifically, the author's death. The rest were more in keeping with the first story, with the author unsuccessfully trying to save people or watching as their own actions unknowingly fulfilled her prophecy.

* * *

Having understood Cassie's message quite clearly, Dawn sat down to write a little over a week after she finished reading Cassie's gifts. A clean notebook in front of her, Dawn spent the better part of a day staring at it.

She couldn't figure out what to write, where to start. At least until she thought back to the tower. The first portal created by her blood.

Dawn tried to write, then changed her mind. She pulled out a sketch pad used during art class. There was a reason art was her favorite class. It was the only class other than French where she always managed straight A's.

First she measured out the space she thought she needed for each image with a ruler, then she began to draw. The tower, the portal, Buffy's sacrifice were, Dawn decided, best written in the style of a comic book-no, a graphic novel. She started at the beginning with the monks of the Order of Dagon and the Knights of Byzantium. She knew now, remembered now how the key had come into the monk's possession and why the Knights so wanted its destruction.

She began with the prologue, with Sir Kay and Sir Gawain, giving the object known as the Key of Dimensions to the Monks of the Order of Dagon in what would one day become the Czech Republic. She'd just begun the seventh page-the second of the first chapter-where Glorificus, the war goddess of insanity, was thrown from her home dimension by her brothers when Buffy returned from patrol.

Dawn managed to sleep three hours that night-a record since the night she'd learned she was still the Key.

The next two days were spent writing the first chapter where the Key was turned into Hilde, the human sister of Brigitte, a powerful female demon hunter (she couldn't bring herself to write about the Slayer) and the last monk died, giving Brigitte the orb of Dagon. She set the story in what would one day be Finland and her characters were Norse, as Anya had always been willing to talk to her about her childhood home. The timeline had of course been changed, with maybe two hundred years instead of a millennia between when the Key came to the monastery and when it was changed into a human. It gave her the opportunity to write the story in a particularly rich period of history-one she was actually familiar with. She spent most of Monday editing the prologue and first chapter rather than bother taking more than cursory notes for class.

On the way to the Magic Shop that day she pawned everything she'd stolen that could actually be sold since Buffy had come back to life-she hadn't bothered stealing since she'd learned she was still the Key. There didn't seem to be much point in stealing to get the Scoobies's attention when she was trying not to draw attention to herself or her current problems; there was no way in hell she was going to let people know she was still the Key given a choice in the matter. With the money she got from pawning the jewelry, Dawn bought a set of very nice markers, a set of watercolor paints, a sketch pad, several watercolor brushes, and a new gum eraser.

That afternoon while Willow and Giles studied the newest demonic threat and Anya worked the till, Dawn carefully set about inking and coloring the comic she'd drawn. It took her no time at all to decide to color the comic with watercolors, rather than markers because of the wide range of colors she could get with them. It took quite a bit more time and she had to wait for the paint to dry, but it gave her the time to think that she needed. Admittedly, watercolor was a difficult medium to work in and required a great deal of skill to utilize it correctly, but the finished product, if done right, was absolutely amazing.

It took her most of the afternoon to paint the first two pages to her satisfaction and then use a very fine pointed black marker for the lines and letters. That evening, instead of doing her homework, she colored the next three pages, completing the prologue.

That evening she managed to sleep five hours, only to be woken up by a combination of the memories masquerading as dreams and the noise of Buffy coming upstairs after patrol.

Left with no other choice, Dawn had gotten up. For lack of anything better to do, Dawn began to search for Cassie's books of poetry. There was something in there, she was sure. Something important. Eventually she found the poem she was looking for.

She fought the urge to wince, to hide. Or to burn the book to ashes. Somehow, Cassie had known what she was. Had known about the Key and what had occurred. It was a little indirect in it's references to the Key and Buffy and Glory, but when you knew what had happened, it was obvious what the poem was about.

Once she had a chance to calm down, Dawn realized that the poem would go perfectly with her graphic novel. There were thirteen verses and if she wrote it right, paced the story correctly, she could put one at the beginning of each section; the prologue, eleven chapters, and the epilogue.

By the time the household woke up for breakfast, Dawn had managed to write an outline of the next ten chapters and the epilogue. The prologue had been by and far the easiest to write-and the only one she hadn't written a script for-as it had contained no dialogue, only images and sporadic narration. She'd written the script of the first chapter before drawing it, but it had all been very tentative with her drawing images and placing dialogue as she went until finally she was happy with it.

Once that was done, Dawn had carefully drawn the cover page of the prologue and the first chapter, deciding to do landscapes that had to do with each, with a painstakingly drawn borders using Norse imagery. Then she broke out an old fashioned fountain pen which had belonged to her mother and carefully wrote the first verse of the poem on the cover page for the prologue, using an old style which was meant to reflect the shape of Norse runes. She did the same for the cover page of the first chapter, using the second verse.

* * *

"Camp?" said Dawn, appalled at the very idea.

Three days had passed since Tara's death. Three days since Willow had gone off the deep end and attempted to destroy the world.

"It's near Opal City."

"It's in Pennsylvania. Opal is in Maryland."

Buffy ignored Dawn, continuing her attempt to sell the camp to her. "There's rock climbing, swimming, canoeing, hiking, horseback riding, rafting, and all sorts of fun stuff."

"But-" protested Dawn.

"Please, Dawnie. Do this for me."

"Alright," sighed Dawn. "When do I leave?"

"Two days. Giles is going to drive you to LAX and get you on a plane to Philadelphia. Once there, you're going to catch a bus to the camp. Giles will give you all the information."

"I'm going to go pack."

"Only a duffle bag and a backpack," ordered Buffy.

* * *

Dawn let out a sigh as she piled clothing on the bed. Then she paused, thinking. Once she got to camp, it would be simple enough to slip away. She had to learn how to control her abilities. If she didn't, it could be bad. Very bad.

Of course, if she lost control of her powers or made a mistake, she could destroy the entire dimension. At least she thought she might. Who knew what the real extent of her powers might be. It would be easy enough to arrange it so that the camp thought she'd gotten homesick and gone home or some such. Then she could leave and try to figure out what to do.

Right. That was what she was going to do.

She bit her lip, then began to decide what clothing to take with her. She picked out a pairs of tough corduroy trousers, two pairs of leggings, and a pair of capris-she'd be wearing jeans on the plane so there was no reason to pack an extra pair. There was a set of flannel pajamas, a flannel nightgown, and a simple set of an oversized t-shirt and sweatpants. It took a bit, but Dawn managed to find a set of long underwear that had belonged to her mother. She found a thick fuzzy cardigan, a loose long sleeved plaid shirt, a t-shirt and a tank top. After a moment's thought, she grabbed a simple jersey dress with an a-line skirt that stopped at mid-calf. Then she went into the room Tara had shared with Willow and took an ankle length broomstick skirt and the outfit Tara had worn during the incident with that singing demon-just in case she ended up in a place more than a couple decades behind the times. She packed a ten pairs of underwear, six pairs of socks, two pairs of sheer pantyhose, and three bras. Finally, Dawn packed her mother's hiking boots as they were just slightly worn in and Joyce's feet were the same size as Dawn's and her mother's winter coat, scarf, hat, and gloves that hadn't been used since the time they went up to Yosemite. She'd also found a thin hooded rain jacket, an umbrella and a tarp. She packed a basic toiletry bag and a sewing kit with extra buttons, a few needles, pins, pieces of scrap material, and half a dozen spools of thread.

These items were packed with the knowledge that they had to fit into a fanny pack she'd stuffed into her backpack. The fanny pack was admittedly very much not in style, but with a spell Tara had called the "Marry Poppins-Carpet Bag Spell," she could fit quite a bit into it. And in all honesty, when wandering the multiverse, she'd rather carry a small fanny pack than a bulky backpack or an unwieldy duffle bag. Particularly since the spell tended to have odd side effects when used on something too large or with too many pockets. A sleeping bag rated for negative degree weather and a tent along with other basic camping supplies were already packed into the fanny pack. She'd spent the past two days discreetly buying cans of food, MREs from an army surplus store, and dried food, all of which were already in the fanny pack along with a canteen and two gallon plastic jugs of water.

After a moment's thought she put the paints, markers, pencils and sketchpad in a waterproof container and put them in the backpack. She packed a first aid kit with quite a bit stolen from the bathroom first aid kit, a bar of soap that had belonged to her mother, and the "basic" herbs required for any spell Dawn could think of that might come in use into the fanny pack. Tara had been teaching her to use magic since shortly after they'd first met, nearly two and a half years prior. Finally, she packed a sword, a battle axe and a set of knives in the duffle bag, hidden with magic so that they would not be detected by metal detectors, x-rays, or a physical search.

She had already hidden several knives on her body, using the same spell to keep them from being detected by anything short of a physical search, but it was less than she felt comfortable with. Likewise every bit of money she'd managed to save had been squirreled away in various pockets and bags.

"Dawn? Are you ready yet?" demanded Buffy. "You need to go if you want to catch your plane."

She let out a sigh and shouldered her bad. After a moment of thought, Dawn picked up the four Dian Belmont books that Cassie had not given her-she'd had to scour used book stores to find the rest of Belmont's books-and put them in her backpack. She would need something to do on the plane or what would most likely be boring times between moving from dimension to dimension-assuming she didn't spend the summer fighting for her life-and there was no way she'd manage to draw the entire time. Then she found a pleated mid-thigh lengths skirt, a wool knee length skirt, and grabbed a handful of shirts and stuffed them in her duffle bag on the way out.

* * *

Dawn let out a growl when she saw the pile all the duffle bags from the bus had been thrown in. Typical. No respect for them or their belongings. She attempted to pulled her duffle bag out, only to have her feet loose their purchase and her half slide, half fall to the ground.

"You alright?" said a deep male voice.

"I think so," said Dawn, desperately willing no portals to form as she tried to ascertain whether or not her skin had been broken.

Dawn let out a sigh of relief when she realized none of her visible skin was broken and there was no sign that anything under her clothing had been harmed. She gratefully accepted the hand the boy offered her and stood.

"Thank you," smiled Dawn.

He was rather handsome, with black hair, blue eyes and a healthy tan. He was healthily muscled from use, rather than because he'd specifically worked out to bulk up. The boy's clothing was nothing special, worn in jeans, a t-shirt and an unbuttoned plaid shirt. He wore work boots, rather than sneakers. He'd been on the same bus as she, Dawn realized. No wonder he was over here, he was probably looking for his own luggage.

"This your bag?"

"Yeah."

The boy reached in and pulled out her duffle bag with no sign of strain. "There you go." He reached in a pulled out another bag, presumably his own. "I'm Jason, Jason Todd."

"Dawn Summers." She shouldered her bag. "Nice meeting you."

"You as well," he said, obviously picking up on the fact that she wanted to leave.

Dawn smiled and walked away. This was, she knew, the best chance she'd have to slip away from the camp. The chaos of new arrivals and registration perfectly covered her escape. She walked like she knew what she was doing and where she was going. On her way into the forest, she happened upon a group of wildflowers. Perfect, she decided. They would take care of the camp nicely. She picked them and continued on until she could neither hear nor see any of the campers.

Dawn put down her bags and sat down on a convenient rock. She placed the flowers next to her and opened her backpack. As it was mostly books and her artwork which had been in the backpack, she put them into the inner pocket of the largest pocket and zipped the pocket closed. The clothing-save the hiking boots and the loose plaid shirt-was put into the largest pocket on top of the backpack and duffle bag. The magic herbs and the book of magic she'd take with her were placed in a small outer pocket for easy access. The bar of soap, the toiletries, first aid kit, and the sewing equipment were put into a small pocket inside of the medium sized pocket. Food was placed in the medium pocket. The water and the canteen were placed in the side pocket. The sword and battle axe in another side pocket. The knives were simply strapped onto her under her clothing-Buffy never seemed to realize that when Spike babysat her, and the summer when she was dead, he'd taught her useful skills, like knife fighting, self-defense, and how to use weaponry such as swords. The tent, sleeping bag, tarp, and camping equipment were placed in the only empty pocket left.

She reached down to pick up the flowers only to blow the hair out of her face. Dawn sighed and pulled her hair into a loose braid. She'd have left it at that, except then she started thinking about how easy a braid-or loose hair for that matter-would be to grab as a handhold in a fight. She pulled a couple bobby pins and hair pins from her bag and quickly wrapped her braid into a circular bun, hiding the hair tie and the end of the braid under the rest of the braid. It was quickly pinned into place. She used the two leftover bobby pins on either side of her head, just behind her ears to make sure that any hair which escaped the bun would not get in the way.

She picked up the flowers and whispered a spell, one that would make sure that nobody at the camp would remember that she'd been dropped off by that bus, or even that she'd been registered for the camp. The flowers caught fire and burned to ash.

Faintly, Dawn wondered if a portal could be opened without using blood.

Dawn flinched back in shock when the air split with a white light, expanding outward in a circular manner. The familiar white and purple mist formed as pale green bolts of energy jumped from one edge of the portal to the other.

Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself. She could do this.

She stood and waited until the portal was just slightly taller than she was, then she willed it to stop growing. Dawn tilted her head, wondering where the portal went to. Something, a feeling of some sort ran through over her, tickling the edge of her mind, but Dawn had no idea how to interpret it. She bit her lip and asked again, this time paying attention to the feeling, trying to figure out what this meant. If it meant the portal went somewhere dangerous or not. Although she supposed that all the portals went somewhere that could be dangerous, if a person didn't know how to survive there.

The only way to learn to control her powers seemed to be experience. It was time to get that experience.

"The hell?"

Dawn spun around. Her eyes widened as she realized the boy who'd helped her at the camp was staring at her. "Jason?"

"What are you, a witch?"

"Yes, actually. Although my kind prefer the term wicca," she answered smartly.

It was actually the truth. Tara had been a traditionally trained wicca; a wise woman and midwife trained in herb lore, traditional healing methods and medicines, and the traditional magic of her family's native Scotland. Over the course of two and a half years, she'd taught Dawn everything about these things that she knew. Her mind stuttered to a halt at that. She'd learned so much from Tara. She'd learned magic correctly from Tara.

But Willow… Willow had been so impatient, so powerful, caring more about learning big magics than the little rituals and knowledge which protected a magic user from being pulled either to chaos or order. Both chaos and order were addictive in their own rights, though in different ways, and nothing good came of serving either force. Willow had surely felt the pull of these addictive forces and first with that magic peddling demon, and later after Tara's death, Willow had given in to chaos.

"What are you doing with that thing?" Jason motioned toward the portal, his New Jersey accent getting heavier as he spoke.

"Me? I'm going to go through it. Then the portal is going to close." As Dawn spoke she fastened the fanny pack around her waist and tightened the belt until it felt secure. Then she put on the plaid shirt, tied the ends together just above the fanny pack and started to roll its sleeves up to just below her elbows. If he'd seen her do the memory spell, it wouldn't have affected him at all. "I'd appreciate it if you turned around and walked back to camp and forgot that this happened entirely."

"Where does this portal go?"

"I have no idea," she shrugged. "Not that it's any business of yours."

"You go through this portal, anybody going to get hurt?"

"I don't think so."

"Why did you come to the camp at all, if you were just going to leave?"

"That's none of your business, Jason. I'm leaving now."

With that, Dawn turned and walked through the portal. This might, she knew, kill her. For all she knew, if she stepped through that portal, she'd loose her human body and become a ball of magical energy again, but Dawn couldn't bring herself to care. Better this than a slow death waiting to accidentally open a portal and kill herself-and possibly everybody around her.

In the middle of stepping into the portal, she felt her stomach drop to her feet. Something-probably Jason-had grabbed her arm. As energy ran through her she could feel everything about the portal, she now knew what her powers had been trying to tell her earlier. She could feel the energy breaching the barrier between two dimensions which she now realized felt nothing alike and her own power forming a tunnel of sorts between the breaches.

They stumbled to the ground in this new world, this new dimension, and Dawn willed the portal closed. Somehow, she wasn't sure how, she knew that it would be bad for the portal to remain open much longer.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

* * *

"What the hell were you thinking?" demanded Dawn, first breaking his hold on her arm then smacking Jason on the shoulder. "Do you have any idea how stupid what you just did was?"

"No, but I'm sure you'll be more than happy to tell me," said Jason, not even bothering to hide the sarcasm-or anger-in his voice.

"Damnit, do you have any idea what you did? You followed me into an alternate dimension and I have no idea if I can even get you back!" Dawn took a deep breath and glanced around, trying to ascertain what sort of situation they'd landed in.

Her eyes widened there were blue trees and purple plants everywhere around them. Vaguely she could make out bits of a red sky through the trees. It seemed that Jason had seen the same thing as her, because he's begun to let out an impressive array of curses.

"Jason, shut up. I don't think we want to draw any attention to ourselves."

"I don't think I will. Not until you tell me who you are and what you were doing at that camp."

There was a stubborn set to his stance which made Dawn rather sure this was not something she'd be able to get out of. At least if she were going to spend any time around him. Of course she had no intention of doing that.

Dawn thought of the camp they'd been at minutes before, about the forest and the smell of the air-anything and everything she could think of about that place. And then she willed open a portal, hoping that she'd managed to open one where she wanted to go. The portal opened.

Before Jason had a chance to react, she pushed him into the portal. She took one last look around to commit this world to memory and walked through after him. Once through, Dawn closed the portal.

She fought the urge to wince at the thunderous look upon Jason's face.

"This should be Camp Chippewa," announced Dawn. "Let's get you back to camp where you belong."

"You're not gonna answer any of my questions, are you?" he said in resignation.

"Got it in one."

She was about to leave when she realized that something felt off. Dawn couldn't quite figure out what was wrong, but she wasn't going to abandon Jason here until she knew he'd be safe.

"Well," said Dawn. She began walking in the direction of the sound of voices. "Let's get you back and checked in."

"What, are you going to walk me back in there like a child?"

Dawn gave him a deadpan look which made it clear that if necessary, she would personally frog march Jason back into the camp. Jason let out a sigh before he picked up the duffle bag that had fallen off his shoulder in this most recent trip through a portal and began to walk as well. Jason was, she realized, practically bristling and one wrong move might set him off.

They slipped into the camp, weaving between groups of people with ease. Dawn had a feeling that Jason intended to keep her in his sights for as long as possible. At least this meant they wouldn't loose each other.

Dawn walked toward the lines where people checked in. She turned to speak to Jason only to realize he'd stopped short. She backtracked and found him staring blankly at the check in lines.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly.

"I don't recognize any of these people," he explained. Then he began to motion. "There were five check-in lines, not nine. The welcome banner is a different color."

"Crap," she muttered, taking a good look around. She reached out, asking what was different with her senses. The answer came immediately. "Let's see if we can get a free lunch off of the camp and try to figure out what to do."

"Free lunch?" Jason raised an eyebrow at her.

"Why should we pay if we can blend in with the campers and eat for free," Dawn joked. Then she sobered. "I don't even know if they use the same money in this dimension."

"I think I smell barbeque that way."

"Lead the way."

The duo found a set of tables with food laid out-typical barbeque food such as hotdogs and hamburgers judging by what Dawn could smell. They joined the line, both studiously avoiding looking at each other or speaking. Dawn grabbed some of everything, happily gathering enough food for two people. She wasn't one to pass up free, plentiful food, particularly after the year she and Buffy had had. It was rare these days that she had an opportunity to eat as much as she wanted.

At the end of the line she grabbed three birch beers. Birch beer was actually very similar to root beer although Dawn had to admit that she preferred it to the more common alternative. She decided that she would go back to the line and get a couple more birch beers before leaving and slip them into her fanny pack so that she could have the occasional treat.

She looked at the various tables, each of which sat eight and quickly made her way to a sunny, grassy spot several yards away from anybody else. Most were seated at the tables, but there were quite a few sitting on the ground as well. Dawn set out the food and began to put together a sandwich that Jason took one look at and blanched. Dawn sighed. Nobody ever understood her sense of taste.

"We're in an alternate dimension," Jason said, pitching his voice so that it didn't carry. "How the hell did you manage that?"

"Magic," she answered, before taking a bite of her sandwich.

"What? Can all wicca do that?"

"Actually, opening dimensional portals is more in keeping with the abilities of mages or sorcerers-there are dozens of different branches of magic, hundreds of different ways of practicing it."

"What do you mean?"

There was no reason not to educate Jason on this at least, decided Dawn. "Alright, so you know about the Justice Society of America, right? My school studied them and the other capes of that era as part of the section on World War II." At Jason's nod, Dawn continued, "Right, well that magician John Zatara is actually a sorcerer who uses words to shape his magic whereas that order worshiping lunatic Dr. Fate is a mage powered by order magic itself. I'm a wicca, which means that my magic comes from within me, and if I pray correctly to Hecate and other gods, depending upon the situation, they may augment my abilities for certain spells. Although I tend to avoid doing so unless I've no other choice-everything come with a price after all."(1)

"Order magic?"

"Order and chaos magic are as addictive as crack. I avoid them at all cost." (2) She paused, noting just how interested in the subject he was and then decided to go for broke. "Look, there are more things out there in the night than most can even dream about. Vampires, demons, they're all real. I mean, I know we see all sorts of things on the news involving capes, but people tend to dissociate themselves from the reality of the world, they try to pretend their life is normal, their world is normal. When I take you back, be careful at night-never verbally invite somebody into your home, if you can't feel a pulse, he or she doesn't breathe and they're ice cold get the hell out of there and behind a threshold. If you can't, crosses burn the skin, holy water acts like acid-garlic's useless. Either set the vampire on fire or a stake through the heart or trick them into going into full or partial sunlight or if you're really lucky, behead them. Don't bother with guns, bullets are generally useless against both vamps and demons."

"How do you know this? Is it just because you're a witch?"

"It's wicca," she growled. Buffy might be unconcerned about her "secret identity," but Dawn wasn't. However she needed some sort of legitimacy beyond that she had certain powers she'd worked very hard to control so she revealed something relatively harmless. "And no. My sister's a demon hunter. She specializes in vampires."

There was a look on Jason's face that made him look far older than he really was. Dawn stilled. He was, she realized, probably a street kid who'd found his way to a group home or a foster family. Camp Chippewa was part of a charitable organization run by Wayne Enterprises and all the teens at the camp were foster children or from group homes or on rare occasion from a family "disadvantaged" in some other way-Giles had pulled some strings to get her into the program. Jason had intimate knowledge of just how dangerous the supernatural could be, judging by the look on his face and on second thought the incident that had led to him following him through dimensional portals. Many street kids were more aware of supernatural dangers than others simply because it was a very real danger for them. Vampires, dark magic users, and demons preferred to prey upon them because nobody "important" noticed or cared what happened to them.

"I'm gonna go find a john," Jason said abruptly, before standing and leaving.

She let out a sigh. No wonder Jason acted the way he did. Maybe when this was all over she'd introduce him to Gunn over in LA. No doubt he'd be a good influence-one that understood everything Jason had been through.

Quickly, Dawn finished eating her food and then went back for seconds and to grab some extra birch beer. Dawn was a little surprised she was so hungry, at least until she remembered that she'd done a difficult memory spell and both opened and closed two separate dimensional portals. She likely needed to eat so much because of how much energy she had used.

After checking to make sure nobody was looking, Dawn pulled out her sketch pad and began to do a couple quick sketches of the camp itself, then the barbeque and finally Jason. Between taking bites of food she finished the basic shape of Jason's face and began to add more complex shading. It was only when she heard Jason's voice that she realized how long he'd been gone. She slipped the cans of soda into the appropriate pockets of her fanny pack leaving only her sketch pad, pencil and eraser out. She had two sketch pads with her; the one she was writing her comic in and this one. There was nothing incriminating in it, so Dawn felt relatively safe keeping it out.

Jason was talking and laughing with a group of boys by the sound of it. Dawn repressed a growl. She'd thought he'd really left to find a bathroom so that he could collect himself after Dawn had touched upon subjects she hadn't quite realized were so sensitive for him.

"Damnit Jason," said Dawn giving in to her temper. "It takes this long for you to find a bathroom?"

"What are you talking about?" demanded Jason in a tone that wasn't quite right.

Dawn stood and turned around, only to stop short. The first thing she noticed was the strawberry blonde hair. The second was that other than the hair, this boy was physically identical to the Jason she knew. The third was that his voice had been off because he didn't have a pronounced Jersey accent like her Jason.

"Sorry," Dawn said quickly. "I thought you were somebody else. You sound just like my friend, Jason."

"Hey Dawn, these guys botherin' you?" asked Jason as he ambled over, thankfully from behind the group of boys.

"No, no," she said eyes wide, hoping that this red haired Jason would not notice what was doubtless an alternate version of himself. "Everything's fine Jason. It was just a little misunderstanding."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure," she agreed.

Red haired Jason's eyes widened as he heard her Jason speak. It seemed that he noticed how alike they sounded as well. This was, Dawn realized, not going to end well. And then the red haired boy caught sight of his counterpart.

"Hey, I'll see you later, guys," said red haired Jason. He waited until his friends left before saying, "I don't think I want to know but I'm sure there's an interesting story behind this that I think should hear."

"Oh my god!" exclaimed Dawn, putting on her airhead best valley girl act, generally reserved for dealing with Buffy or other members of the Scoobies when she didn't want to talk to them. "Jaaa-son, did you know your deadbeat rat bastard father had another son? I can't believe he has the same name as you. That's so uncool." (3)

Both Jasons blinked at her with identical expressions of stupefied surprise before a look of understanding crossed her Jason's face.

"Dawn, you know my father's always in and out of jail. I barely see him more than a handful of days every couple years."

"Like duh. Why do you think I called him a deadbeat rat bastard?"

"You're from Gotham, right?" said red haired Jason.

"Yeah."

"My family was working with a circus in Western Europe from '67 to '73. Unless you mother was there, it's not possible for us to be brothers."

Then red haired Jason paused in thought before saying something that would have sounded Gaelic had Dawn not known the language. It took a moment for Dawn to decifer that he was asking her Jason what family-or was it clan?-he was from. He was an Irish Traveler, Dawn realized with a start. Irish Travelers were not Romani, though less informed occasionally mistook them for Gypsies. Like the Romani, they were historically a nomadic group that was scapegoated.

To her surprise, her Jason replied in the same language, explaining that so far as he knew, his father had left his family and had little to do with them, though his surname was Todd. Although, she supposed she shouldn't be that surprised, it seemed that they were alternate versions of each other. Maybe he had reacted to the supernatural as he had because of his ancestry.

Her Jason shifted awkwardly, then in English said, "Uh look, I don't really want to have much with my father's family."

"It would be for the best if you were to forget we were here at all," said Dawn, folding her sketch pad closed and slipping her pencil and eraser into her fanny pack. Best not to let him see anything overtly magical.

"Feel like getting out of here?" asked her Jason.

"Yeah. Let's go. Uh, it was nice meeting you, I suppose." She turned to her Jason. "Do you remember which way the road is?"

"This way."

"Right," agreed Dawn. "Bye. Let's go."

The duo slipped away and headed toward the main road until the crowd was out of sight, then they slipped into the forest. Neither spoke until they were nearly a mile away from where they'd left the red haired Jason.

"Was that the me of this dimension?" Jason asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"I think so. I doubt we'll ever know for sure." She paused, "I heard you two comparing families, doesn't he have the same family as you do? I mean, I'm sure you lied…"

"Actually, I have no idea who his parents are," said Jason. "The family name was the same, the family history the same, but it's like he was describing completely different people with different names and different jobs. I mean, my grandfather and his family were aerialists with some circus that made the mistake of touring of touring in Poland in '39. My grandfather and one of his cousins was the only one to survive. In that case at least, the Nazis didn't make much distinction between Travelers and Gypsies."

"God," muttered Dawn. "Let's see about getting you back to our dimension."

She closed her eyes and focused, before opening a portal. "Let's hope this is the right dimension this time."

"Just walk through?" asked Jason.

"Yeah. You go through first, I follow, and close the portal behind us."

Jason ambled through the portal. Dawn followed him, a step behind. Only to stop short and mentally curse Jason Todd-any and all Jason Todds within the multiverse.

"Yes?" said Dawn, turning to look at the boy who'd grabbed her.

"What are you doing?"

"Not this again," sighed Dawn. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be going through this portal now."

With that Dawn shifted her weight and used a move shown to her by Spike to break his hold. Before red haired Jason had a chance to react, Dawn dove through the portal. Behind her she heard red haired Jason object to her actions, but Dawn really couldn't bring herself to care.

She reached out with her mind to close the portal as quickly as possible, in the hope that red haired Jason wouldn't follow her, only to realized, when she looked up that she'd been too late. Like his counterpart, he had followed her through a dimensional portal with little care for his own safety or well being. The worst part, Dawn realized was that the portal was completely closed and she wasn't at all sure she could send him back.

"Idiots!" she shouted. "The both of you are fucking morons! Have you no sense of self preservation? No care for your own safety and wellbeing? Are you trying to get yourselves killed?" She stood up. "Of course not. In your little worlds, following strange women through dimensional portals obviously makes some sort of deranged sense! Do you want to get stranded in a dimension not your own?"

Neither boy had the grace to look ashamed of their actions. Rather they looked at her in a way which made it clear that they were completely unapologetic.

"Never mind," she growled. "Obviously you idiots don't care how stupid you're being. Let's just get you back to your home dimensions and then I can forget I ever met you."

"Hey, uh, you get the right dimension this time?" asked her Jason, glancing around the woods.

"This time?" echoed red haired Jason.

"Last time we ended up in your dimension," he explained.

"What the hell are you two doing anyway?"

Her Jason shrugged. "I have no idea what she's doing, but I caught her doing some sort of spell and tried to stop her from going through a portal until she explained. 'Cept she dragged me through the damn thing with her. Is this my dimension Dawn?"

Dawn probed the dimensional barriers only to let out an impressive string of curses. At least, she supposed, she was getting better at reading what her senses told her.

"What's wrong?" asked red haired Jason.

"Wrong dimension, again," growled Dawn.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" demanded her Jason.

"Yes and no. It's complicated," explained Dawn "And it's not like you have any right to question me you jackass. I'm going to toss you back into your home dimension and you are going to forget this ever happened."

"But-"

"But nothing. I don't care what's going through your mind, forget about it."

"I don't think so," protested her Jason while red haired Jason leaned against a tree, seemingly content to watch them argue. "Am I supposed to follow through dimension after dimension with no idea what's going on? You've already tried twice to return me to my dimension. That's two strikes. You fail a third time and I want to know everything."

"Fine! And you?"

Red haired Jason shrugged. "I'd like to hear that explanation as well."

"Alright." Dawn seemed to collapse into herself, thinking about the situation. "I will try to return you to your world one more time and then I'll try to return you to your dimension three times. If I'm unsuccessful, I will explain everything, but you two have to agree that you will spend the summer traveling with me from dimension to dimension, without complaint. When the summer is over I'll do my best to return you to your dimension. If that's agreeable to you two?"

"I can live with that," said her Jason.

"Me too," agreed red haired Jason.

Dawn brushed herself off and took a look around. "Is it just me or is there something weird about this place?"

"Does that portal scare the birds away?" asked red haired Jason.

"Not the last time we went through," said Dawn.

"Maybe we should leave," suggested her Jason.

"Yeeaah," she said stretching the word out.

Concentrating, Dawn reached out finding a world that felt right. Carefully, she pierced the dimensional barriers, forming a portal between the two worlds. The trio walked through the portal which Dawn carefully closed behind them. Something had been terribly off about that dimension they'd been in-beyond the missing birds-and Dawn wanted nothing to do with whatever was wrong.

"Well, let's see if this is the right place," sighed Dawn, heading toward the summer camp. Well, toward what she hoped was the summer camp.

The trio slipped out of the forest and into the clearing that should have led to the camp only to stop short. It looked like they were on the edge of a crater, though Dawn knew enough to know it was the result of an explosion. A very large explosion by the size of it.

"This is more than a couple hours old," said Dawn.

Red haired Jason nodded his agreement. "I'd estimate anywhere from a week to three weeks old, no more than that. If it was, there'd already be plant growth."

Both Dawn and her Jason turned to look at their companion. How would he know such a thing? But now wasn't the time to ask those sorts of questions, decided Dawn.

"We should leave," she suggested.

"Mmhm."

"What coulda caused this?" asked her Jason.

"I don't think we want to find out."

With that Dawn opened a portal, trying to keep red haired Jason in mind. When the trio went through, Dawn closed the portal behind her.

She blinked, wondering what Jason and Jason were staring at. Then the world started to tilt and the land rose up to meet her.

* * *

"Did she faint?" asked the dark haired boy with his name, his face.

"Give me a minute." Jason knelt to check on the strange girl. "She's fine, I think she just exhausted herself. How many of these portals did she open and close today?"

"There were two before we met this morning… five, that I know of. Maybe she opened some earlier, but I think she's from the same world I am."

"It seems to me that making so many portals would tire anybody out."

He'd only been Robin for a few short years, but Jason had met enough so-called superheroes, enough so-called supervillains to know that opening dimensional portals required more power than most could ever dream of. Part of him was terrified about just how powerful this girl was, but a good portion of him had to acknowledge that at least she wasn't trying to hurt them or abandon them in a world not their own.(4)

Jason had caught the tail end of the conversation between Dawn and the other Jason and had heard what he'd said about them probably being alternate versions of each other, about what had happened to the other Jason's family. He had to admit that the girl was probably correct. He didn't have much experience with alternate dimensions, but knew enough, through stories from Dick and Babs and Bruce that he could make a few educated guesses.

"You'd think she'd have a better idea of her limits," said the other Jason.

"Mm. Why's that?"

"She's some sort of witch. Well, she called herself a wicca, whatever that is."

"Wise women. That particular magical branch is native to the UK and Ireland. They're midwives and healers and generally some of the most balanced, mellow, magic users," explained Jason. "My cousin, she chose to be trained as one rather than to join the family business."

"Mellow?"

"Some, like mages can be real high strung."

"When do you think she'll wake up?"

"No idea." Jason paused, in thought. "I don't think Camp Chippewa is even over there."

"Neither do I," agreed other Jason.

"Right. I hear a river over that way, we can camp out there until Dawn wakes up."

His double nodded and picked up Dawn in a fireman's carry before Jason had a chance to do so. He picked up the duffle bag his black haired… alternate had dropped and led the way through the woods with practiced ease. Bruce had made sure he had more than the most basic of wilderness survival skills.

* * *

When Dawn awoke, it was to the smell of burning wood and cooking meat. Slowly, she opened her eyes. They were about half a dozen yards from a small creek. Jason and Jason were lounging side by side watching, Dawn realized, a buck drink from the creek. Dawn was under a lean to made mostly of evergreen branches.

Dawn waited until the buck left before clearing her throat. Both of the boys instantly looked over and Dawn was once more struck by just how alike they were.

"What happened?" asked Dawn.

"You fainted a couple hours ago," explained her Jason.

"There was no summer camp, so we just set up camp and caught some dinner."

"Thanks."

Red haired Jason nodded toward the fire which had, she noted a skinned rabbit speared on a stick balanced above it, cooking. "The food should be ready in a couple minutes."

Carefully Dawn sat up. She bit her lip unsurely, then announced, "I've already struck out three times trying to get Jason home and I've struck out once trying to get you home. Do you want me to try again in the morning or do you just want to come with Jason and I?"

"What are you doing travelling through dimensions anyway?" red haired Jason asked, an intense, curious look on his face.

"If I tell you the basics, will that satisfy you both until you decide?"

"Yes," both Jasons said in unison.

"Right. I am a fully trained wicca, but I'm also… well I have an ability. I can open dimensional portals. I think… I think that at one point I knew how to control this ability, but if I did, I don't remember anymore. When my sister sent me to Camp Chippewa for the summer I thought it was the perfect opportunity to learn to control it, so I erased myself from the memories of everybody at the camp with that spell I you saw me doing so that they wouldn't report me missing to my sister. It doesn't work properly on a person if they see it cast, that's why you remember me. My plan is to spend the summer learning to control my abilities. These abilities are too dangerous for me not to know how to control them."

"How dangerous are you talking about?" asked red haired Jason.

Dawn closed her eyes, then looked at her hands. "About a year ago a hell goddess kidnapped me and tried to use me to open a portal to her home dimension, almost destroying the walls of I don't want to think how many dimensions." It was only when her Jason put his plaid shirt around her shoulders that she realized she was shaking. She weakly pulled the shirt tight around her. "The only reason our dimension and countless others weren't destroyed is because my sister closed it. It wasn't… it wasn't like the portals I've been opening for us. This was a portal made from my blood at the right time, the right place. It was only supposed to close when the blood stopped."

"Do you mean when your wound clotted or when the blood completely drained?" Red haired Jason's questions were too astute for her tastes.

"Yes." She showed them the ligature scars she'd received from straining against the ropes she'd been tied with. "She had her minions tie me to a tower and then this demon, I only knew him as Doc, cut me open." She wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but she was almost in tears. "Spike tried to save me but Doc pushed him off the tower. Then he cut me open and the blood dripped and then there was a portal opening bellow my feet. My sister fought the hell goddess and managed to get up the tower to me but it was too late. The portal was open and there was only one way to stop it; for the blood to stop. Buffy cut me free and tried to get me to climb down but the portal was only growing bigger." To her embarrassment she'd started to cry. "I remember a dragon escaped through the portal. I'd never seen a dragon before."

Red haired Jason handed her a cloth handkerchief. She gave him a weak, teary smile. "There was only one way to close it. I was going to throw myself into the portal to stop it before it tore down all the dimensional barriers. But Buffy wouldn't let me. We're sisters, we have the same blood. She sacrificed herself instead of me. God, she just dove into the portal and it closed, and then her body landed on the ground. She was dead. My older sister was dead and my mother was dead-she had died a couple months prior-and my father was in Spain somewhere with his slutty secretary. And my powers were gone.

"It was hard, but I'd always known Buffy was going to die young-demon hunters… they don't live long lives. Then, God, Willow and Xander got the bright idea to use the Buffybot-it's an android created for one of our… former enemies-to fool the local demon population into thinking Buffy was still alive and hunting them. It looked like Buffy, acted like Buffy, but it wasn't."

"Did they make you spend time with that thing?" demanded her Jason, clearly incensed. At Dawn's nod, he said, "That's fucked up."

"That's… that has to be a real mind fuck," agreed red haired Jason.

"The worst was that Willow and Xander and Anya used this very dark spell to resurrect Buffy a couple months later." Dawn let out a hollow laugh. "Willow thought Buffy was in a hell dimension. A simple spell, one damn scrying spell would have shown her that Buffy was in a heavenly dimension with Mom. But she never thought beyond her own arrogance. So she raised Buffy from the dead, pulled her soul out of heaven. They didn't even have the decency to unearth her casket. They thought the spell had failed so they left her to dig her way out and I was the one who found her on that tower, half insane and about to throw herself from it again."

"Who the hell does that sort of thing?" her Jason all but growled, not bothering to hide his fury.

Alternately, red haired Jason looked horrified. "A lunatic, that's who."

Dawn snorted. "You're right. We didn't know it at the time but Willow was becoming addicted to Chaos magic. She tried to stop, to learn to do magic properly, and then her girlfriend Tara was shot and killed about a week and a half ago. She went crazy, flayed the man who killed Tara alive, tried to destroy the world. She would have succeeded, if Xander hadn't talked her down. I haven't had the chance to watch the news, but you probably felt the earthquakes, even in New Jersey," she said to her Jason.

He nodded. "Nobody knew why the entire continent felt the earth move. There were small tsunamis in eastern Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, northern South America, Western Europe and Africa. They thought it was some new supervillain."

"God, I had no idea. Willow's been shipped off to some coven in Devon, England to learn to control herself properly." She wiped away her tears and blew her nose. "But we were talking about my powers. For a long time-up until a couple months ago, I thought my powers were gone and I was so relieved. Except then I cut myself sharpening a knife and opened a portal. I managed to close it, and figured out I could control these portals-at least somewhat-with my mind. I waited until now to experiment with my powers because I had school and Buffy would worry. I'm hoping to have a good idea of what I'm doing by the time the summer's over."

"And if you still can't control them by September?" asked red haired Jason.

"So be it. I knew what I was getting myself into."

"You don't need to take me back to my world until summers over," volunteered red haired Jason.

Her Jason nodded. "Me too. If ya don't mind my askin' how'd you end up with these powers?"

"I started out as a magical object," announced Dawn. "Until two years ago I was a semi-aware ball of mystical energy that could open portals that was called the Key of Dimensions. These monks that were guarding me, their monastery was under attack from the hell goddess Glory and before she killed off all the monks, they turned me into a human and sent me to Buffy to protect. Something she would protect, a little sister. At the time I'd no idea I was anything other than Buffy's sister. I thought I was just a normal fourteen year old. I had memories of my life as a human, a mind of my own, I have a soul-I checked, believe me." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, it's only since that portal opened a couple months ago that the memories of my time as the Key have started to come back. I don't remember much-just how I ended up in that monastery and why an entire order of knights were trying to destroy me, but I know I existed before then. I know that I was alive for a long, long time before them. I have flashes of memories in dreams. They're still so jumbled up, but they've been getting clearer as time goes by."

Her Jason shook his head. "That has to be one of the craziest things I've ever heard, but I believe you."

"I've heard stranger," remarked red haired Jason. "So, what next Dawn?"

"Tomorrow I'm going to open a portal. I'm not sure where. I think I'm going to try letting my powers lead me where it will. I only had a chance to do that with the first portal and I'd like a chance to do it properly." She paused, then mentioned, "If you want, I can do something about carrying that duffle bag everywhere. Do you have a fanny pack? I mean, I know it's totally geeky, but if I use a bag too big you only end up with lost items and rabid dust bunnies."

"What are you thinkin' 'bout doing?" asked her Jason.

"The Mary Popins-Carpet Bag Spell. I'm sure you can figure out what it does. Tara-she's the one who taught me magic-her grandmother figured out how to make the spell based upon that old movie."

"You know the strangest things," chuckled her Jason.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you what a normal day in my home town is like." She turned to red haired Jason. "I think you two will need to share clothes until we can go into a town and pick up some clothing. If they don't use the same type of money we do, I could probably hustle some poker or pool-although I'm better at hustling poker."

"Don't worry about it. I've hustled before," he remarked.

Her Jason gave him an appraising look. "I'm better with pool and darts, you?"

"I haven't hustled darts in a while, but I'm an old hat at pool." He motioned toward the rabbit. "Food's done."

"Thank you," smiled Dawn. "So obviously we'll need to say you're brothers or cousins or something. Cousins would probably work better for explaining why you've got the same name."

"You guys can call me Jay if that makes it easier," offered red haired Jason.

* * *

(1) If you've caught this then you've probably figured out by now that Dawn and the Jason from her dimension are indeed from the same pre-Crisis Earth as the JSA and other "Golden Age" comic characters, also known as Earth-Two.

(2) In the comic books, at least the recent ones, Chaos magic is shown to be addictive. It stands to reason that Order magic would be equally addictive. Given what Dawn has been through with Willow and Amy-not to mention Ethan Rayne-she'd be more wary than most of are of such magics.

(3) It almost seemed that Dawn was getting more immature as the series went by and this is my explanation why. She's intelligent enough to learn who knows how many languages, it stands to reason that she'd be intelligent enough to be familiar with correct grammar.

(4) "Red haired Jason," or "Jay" is the pre-Crisis Jason everybody knows and feels somewhat ambivalent about. You know, the little Dick Grayson clone from the tail end of the "Silver Age" comics, also known as Earth-One.

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Author's Note: In the next chapter, the adventures really begin. I'm sorry it took me so long to put up this chapter, but you know how real life can get in the way sometimes. Anyway, this it the next chapter. Hope you enjoy. For those of you reading on TTH, I'll be adding this to a second category: Dawn-Multicross, because they'll be stopping in more than one familiar, non-DC world. I'm thinking they'll be visiting something a little bit creepy and kooky next. I'm sure you'll figure out where if you catch the hints I've left.


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